Lesson 3 in Ethics

LESSON 3
Freedom and Morality

The concept of freedom, as well as the application of freedom to individual rights,
has been widely used in different levels of analysis in Philippine society as a whole.
Freedom as a concept that pertains to the moral realm is examined in this section. An
important question that must be brought to light is: What is freedom and how is it
exercised in the realm of morals? John Paul Sartre, an existentialist philosopher,
assumes the idea of radical freedom by claiming that “man is condemned to be free”.
Sartre conceives of “man” as an uncon-strained free moral agent in the sense that he
always has a choice in every aspect of his life. Even if somebody points a gun at his head,
he still has a choice whether to follow the wishes of his captors. Sartre claims that “Man
is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.” “Man” is never compelled or
determined; he is totally free and therefore, totally responsible for all the things that he
does. When you exercise freedom in making your choices, you are taking control and
assuming full responsibility for those choices. However, there is one important caveat:
you are free but this freedom is not absolute. You cannot do anything that you please
without taking into consideration the norms of your society. Mores are there to serve as
a form of social control to limit, govern, or regulate your behavior in order to maintain
order in your soci-ety. For example, you cannot just go about killing people you consider
as obnoxious. You are perhaps familiar with the saying ‘your freedom ends where my
freedom begins’. Within the given parameters of our environment, including the economic,
political and social environment, we assume freedom. Our discussion will come to nothing
if we assume otherwise — i.e. that human beings are not free and their choices are always
deter-mined by factors or forces in their environment. This deterministic view is
tantamount to saying that human beings are like robots or machines whose actions and
functions can be predicted like cause and effect given the parameters of the variables in
his/her environment. Nor can we embrace fully the extreme view of radical freedom
without taking into consideration the norms of our society. Freedom of the human person
in the moral sense of the word assumes that one is a free moral agent. Moral, in this
sense, refers to the freedom to make one's choice in accordance with one’s own moral
discernment of what is good and bad, and one is taking full responsibility for one’s own
actions and is using his/her rational and empathetic capacity as a moral being. Aside from
our reason and critical thinking, we also have the ability to empathize or to feel what other
beings feel and to situate ourselves in their shoes.
Free Will describes our capacity to make choices that are genuinely our own. With free
will comes moral responsibility – our ownership of our good and bad deeds.
That ownership indicates that if we make a choice that is good, we deserve the
resulting rewards. If in turn we make a choice that is bad, we probably deserve those
consequences as well. In the case of a really bad choice, such as committing murder, we
may have to accept severe punishment.
The link between free will and responsibility has both theological and philosophical roots.
Within theology, for example, the claim that humans are ‘made in the image of God’ (a
central tenet of major religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam) is not that they are
the physical image of their creator.
Rather, the claim is made that humans are made in the ‘moral image’ of God – which is
to say that they are endowed with the ‘divine’ capacity to exercise free will of course, the
experience of free will is not limited to those who hold a religious belief. Philosophers also
argue that it would be unjust to blame someone for a choice over which they have no
control. Determinism is the belief that all choices are determined by an unbroken chain of
cause and effect. Those who believe in ‘determinism’ oppose free will, arguing that that
the belief that we are the authors of our own actions is a delusion. While scientific
evidence has found that there is brain activity prior to the sensation of having made a
choice, is unable to the resolve the question of which account is correct. Should that gap
close – and free will be proven to be an illusion, then the basis for ascribing guilt to those
who act unethically (including criminals) will also be destroyed. How could we justify
punishing a person who claims that they had no choice but to do evil?
Kant's Morality of Law and Morality of Freedom
Kant's comments on moral philosophy prior to the Groundwork of the Metaphysics
of Morals of1785 include two striking claims. The first is the substantive claim
that freedom is the source of all value-that it is intrinsically valuable, and that other
valuable thingsmust not merely be compatible with freedom but actually derive their value
from the value of freedom. Kant made this claim in the lectures on ethics that he gave in
the early 1780s: Freedom is, on the one hand, that faculty which gives unlimited
usefulness to all the other faculties. It is the highest order of life, which serves as the
foundation of all perfections and is their necessary condition. All animals have the faculty
of using their powers according to will. But this will is not free. It is necessitated through
the incitement of stimuli, and the actions of animals involve a but a necessity as. If the will
of all beings were so bound to sensuous impulse, the world would possess no value. The
inherent value of the world, the summon bound, is freedom in accordance with a will which
is not necessitated to action. Freedom is thus the inner value of the world. Translated by
Infield (1930)
ACTIVITY 3:
1. For you, what is true Freedom? (200 words)
2. How can a person achieve his/her Freedom? (200 words)

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LESSON 3

Freedom and Morality

exercised in the realm of morals? John Paul Sartre, an existentialist philosopher,

deter-mined by factors or forces in their environment. This deterministic view is

beings feel and to situate ourselves in their shoes.

may have to accept severe punishment.

the physical image of their creator.

Kant's Morality of Law and Morality of Freedom

Kant's comments on moral philosophy prior to the Groundwork of the Metaphysics

2. How can a person achieve his/her Freedom? (200 words)

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